


One For You, One For Me

by awayfromsight



Category: Hannibal (TV), Hannibal Lecter Series - All Media Types
Genre: Electric Couple Prompt, F/M, Falling In Love, Florence - Freeform, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-25
Updated: 2017-09-25
Packaged: 2019-01-05 11:21:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12189030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/awayfromsight/pseuds/awayfromsight
Summary: Neither of them ever expected to fall in love.





	One For You, One For Me

**Author's Note:**

  * For [NotPersephone](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NotPersephone/gifts), [kmo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kmo/gifts).



> This is my first contribution to the Electric Couple Prompts. I hope I don't get banned forever.
> 
> \- This is quite sappy. I wish I was sorry.

>   
>  Love - An intense feeling of deep affection, a great interest and pleasure in something or someone.  
>  \- Oxford Dictionary  
> 

Neither of them ever expected to fall in love.  
One does not fall in love while pretending to be someone else and running from one or several federal agencies (they did not really bother keeping up at this point. What did one group of agents more or less matter?). It was too cliché. It wasn’t them.  
While Bedelia du Maurier and Hannibal Lecter had always held mutual respect and fascination for each other, even an underlying attraction, love or anything remotely close to it was not an element either of them ever wished to introduce to their relationship.  
But it seemed that Love cared very little for their wishes.

Hannibal first realized that he was in love with his former psychiatrist when he had seen her walk along the streets of Florence one day. It had’t even been a special occasion, just a sunny day like any other. He had walked ahead of her during one of their late afternoon strolls, to check if his old favorite Gelateria was still open and when he had turned around to walk back to her, he had stopped dead in his tracks.  
The setting Florentine sun had bathed Bedelia in a golden light, illuminating her in her light, flowing dress, making her almost glow. She had been looking at the surrounding houses and when she turned her icy blue gaze forward to him, Hannibal had almost had to take a step back. He had never seen something so beautiful. She had noticed him stare at her, standing still in the middle of the alley that they had been walking on and asked him if he was alright.

“Sorry? Oh, yes… I just… You look beautiful today, Bedelia. Have I told you that?“

The gentle smile she had given him in return seemed completely out of place on her face, the blush appearing on her cheeks almost fake. She thanked him, the reserved smile turning back into the alluring smirk he was so fond of. Shyness looked wrong on her, he decided then. If he wanted bashful, he would’ve stuck with Will as his companion. But he hadn’t. Hannibal had chosen Bedelia instead, just as much as she had chosen him and he loved that decisiveness and security about her. He loved her for her power and confidence. He loved her for her graceful elegance, her beauty and her seemingly endless intellect. He loved her for the things that made her his equal.  
He crossed the rest of the way back to her side, smiling broader than he had in a long time. When he took her hand to walk further down the narrow streets of Florence, he interlaced their fingers and raised their joint hands to press a kiss on the back of hers.  
He loved her. 

 

Bedelia first realized she was in love with her former patient when he made her laugh on Christmas. It had always been her least favorite holiday, filled with nothing but contempt and bad memories from her childhood and she hadn’t bothered to celebrate since she moved out in her early twenties. In Bedelia’s book, Christmas only resulted in more arguments between her parents, and desperate attempts to make up for their lack of involvement in her life with lavish presents. She had learned early on that a award-winning race horse couldn’t make up for empty seats at a piano recital or ballet performance.  
So, when the dreaded holiday had approached in Italy, she had done everything in her power to distract Hannibal (and herself) from remembering it. But no amount of expensive lingerie and critically acclaimed opera performances could make him neglect tradition. So, when she had come home from her tailor one evening, their whole apartment had been transformed. He had put up and decorated a tree, hung garlands from the mantle above the fireplace and she quickly stepped to the side when she noticed mistletoe above the doorway to the sitting room.  
Hannibal was putting the finishing touches on the tree when he heard her come in and turned around, looking like a proud child waiting for his mother’s approval.  
He looked a little crestfallen when he didn’t see the expected delight appear on her face. 

“You don’t like it.“

“I didn’t… expect it. You know of my dislike for Christmas.“

He stepped off the stool he had used to hang decorations on the top branches of the tree and walked over to her, hanging his head a little. 

“I can take it down, if you like?“

She looked up at him. Having abandoned her high heels in the entrance, she was a good foot shorter than him, even if he wasn’t wearing shoes either. He looked so sad at the thought of ruining his hard work.

“No, it’s fine. You put so much effort into it, “ she put on a smile and raised her hand to his cheek, “I think I’ll survive living in Santa’s workshop for a few days.“

The smile that appeared on his face might have even been worth it, she thought in hindsight. He had wrapped his arms around her and pushed her a few steps back, wanting to kiss her only when he thought he had found the right spot to stand in.  
Bedelia had looked at him curiously, wondering what on earth he was maneuvering her around for.

“The mistletoe, Bedelia. I wanted to kiss you under the mistletoe,“ he said, a little impatient, as if it had been the most obvious thing in the world and she really should have known what he was doing. 

She had laughed then. A real, happy laugh. How ridiculous their whole situation had been, she thought. The feared and sought after Chesapeake Ripper, the serial killer and cannibal, adamant to kiss his former psychiatrist under a few twigs of Christmas decoration.

When he was finally happy with their location, he leaned down to press his lips against hers and Bedelia realized, closing her eyes to kiss him back, that she had never laughed on that holiday before. Hannibal had made her laugh on Christmas. Despite whatever trouble they found themselves in, should the FBI ever find them, she had laughed with him. She enjoyed things with him. She felt more secure and appreciated than she ought to, because of him. And, Bedelia realized as she wrapped her hands around his neck, she did not want to give any of it up.  
She loved him.


End file.
